Timetable for data availability of...

Timetable for data availability of...

Timetable for data availability of country

Q: How soon will country data for imports and exports be available?

A: There isn't an expected date or time when a specific country's data will become available. We request the annual data in the month of February. However, we receive data from various countries at different time periods. As soon as our office receives the data, we validate it and upload into the UN Comtrade database.

You can set up a notification procedure where the system would inform you when a particular country period is uploaded. (Note: This option is only available to subscribers.)

For monthly data, we follow-up on a monthly basis with countries that have indicated they will regularly provide monthly data but haven't done so in several months. Some countries provide their latest monthly data within a month of the close of the reference period, while others provide their much data later. As of February 2013, for countries having provided data on at least three separate occasions, and measuring the delay as the number of days between the closure of the reference period and the first receipt of the latest data in our office, 7 countries have a median delay of less than one month, 43 countries have a median delay of less than two months, and 76 countries have a median delay of less than three months, out of a total of 81 countries having submitted data on at least three separate occasions. 28 countries have provided data only once or twice, for a total of 109 countries providing monthly data. This includes countries having provided data but whose data has not been released due to resource constraints. Many countries have not yet established regular provision of monthly data, and we are working with data providers to improve the regularity of data provision.

Related question:

Q: The Comtrade Database has annual data available online. Do you also have monthly data?

A: We have monthly trade flows in the UN Monthly Comtrade (beta version) database. The data can be accessed at http://comtrade.un.org/monthly.